


A Scary Story

by KINGBeerZ



Series: Corrin in the Shepherds [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Archanean history embellished, Corrin in Awakening, Crossover, Fluff, Gen, Manaketes, Parent-Child Relationship, story time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 20:27:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15151184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KINGBeerZ/pseuds/KINGBeerZ
Summary: Anankos takes his son on a mountain hike and tells him an old story, one that few still remember.





	A Scary Story

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone reading this. This fic takes place in the same universe as my story 'Dragon Tending Sheep'. You don't have to read it to understand this, or vice versa, but I just wanted to write this little bit of backstory and there was no place where I could easily find to put it in the fic itself, so I created this nice little side story. Any and all questions and comments are welcome. Please enjoy.

“Father, I’m tired…” Corrin complained weakly.

Anankos glanced over his shoulder, his son certainly did appear to be flagging. He was hunched over, aqua and black hair was sticking to his forehead, damp with sweat as he trudged up the mountain trail. 

“Come on Corrin, it’s not that much farther, we’re nearly to the top.” Well, not really the top, but the halfway point of the mountain would do. Anankos knew that expecting a seven year old child to climb a whole mountain was a tad unrealistic. 

“It’s soooo high though.” Corrin whined, craning his neck to look up at the misty and snow shrouded cap of the mountain.

Craning his neck so far back Corrin lost balance and fell onto his behind, kicking up a small cloud of dirt as he did so. Anankos chuckled at his son’s antics before moving to help him.

“Come on Corrin, I’ll help you up.” He reached down and offered his child his hand. Corrin made a pained face.

“But it’s still so far away.” He said dejectedly. 

“Don’t worry, it’s closer than you think.” Corrin still looked unconvinced, the outlook was only a few hundred metres away in truth, but motivating a tired child was a difficult task. “Okay, if you can’t make it on your own, how about I give you a piggyback the rest of the way.” Anankos suggested. This idea was met with far more enthusiasm and the young manakete quickly clambered atop his father’s back, with far more energy than he claimed to possess. 

“Are you comfortable up there, little piggy?” anankos teased as he stood and started walking once more. Corrin’s weight, small as he was, was barely a detriment to his father. 

“I’m not a piggy!” He protested with a huff.

“Oh, well if you’re not a piggy, then what are you young one?” Anankos asked with feigned surprise. 

“I’m a dragon!” Corrin declared proudly. 

“I don’t know about that.” Anankos made some exaggerated sniffing noises. “You certainly smell pretty piggy to me.”

“No! I’m not a pig!” Corrin objected once more with a squeal. 

“Alright then. Would the little not a pig like to see something special.” Anankos prompted as they approached the last bend before the outlook.

“Something special?” Corrin asked, and Anankos felt him lean forward to try and see ahead, and spot this special surprise that he had mentioned. 

Rounding the corner, the two manaketes came upon the outlook. It was a small patch of grass with a bench, and a fence built around it. A cozy little nook sticking out from the side of the mountain. Corrin gasped in amazement at what could be seen beyond it though.

Rolling fields, pastures, woodland, rivers and villages spread out below the mountain they blended together to form the landscape, like an enormous patchwork quilt of green and brown and blue. 

Beyond this lay the ocean, glittering in the setting sun even from many kilometres away. The endless blue stretched off until it met the horizon and a soft breese, perhaps born from the seashore, stirred the mountain air. 

Anankos quickly crouched down with a chuckle, practically feeling his son’s excitement and desire to get a closer look. 

“Thanks Father.” He said hurriedly before rushing over to the fence, pulling himself onto his tiptoes and looking out at the horizon. “It’s so big.” He breathed in awe.

“It’s the ocean, Corrin.” Anankos informed his son.

“Mother told me it was big… but, it’s huge! And it’s so pretty.” Corrin turned to his father. A beaming grin lit up his face, and his crimson eyes were shining with delight. “It’s amazing!”

“I’m glad you like it son. We silent dragons came from the ocean long ago… which reminds me of why I brought you up here. I wanted to tell you a story.” Anankos sat upon the bench and patted the spot beside him, taking the cue Corrin happily hopped up onto the seat. 

“What kind of story is it father? Is it like one of the one’s mother tells?” Corrin asked.

“Maybe. What kind of stories has Mikoto been telling you?” 

“She’s been telling me about the hero of the blue flames! He had a big sword, and he fought a mean goddess! And then he ran away to live with his tact-tactisi-tactics guy, who was half dragon, just like me!” Corrin explained, gesturing excitedly as he recounted the old story.

“This story is a little bit like that. But this is a very old story, and one that I know is definitely true. Do you want to know how I know?” He asked Corrin, who leaned in, eyes wide with curiosity. “Because I was there.” He whispered.

“I want to hear it!” Corrin exclaimed excitedly, bouncing with energy. _Why do I get the feeling that energy will mysteriously disappear when it’s time to climb down again?_

“Okay then. This story starts many thousands of years ago, and far across the ocean.” Anankos began.

“Like the hero of the blue flames?” Corrin interrupted.

“Not quite that far. You see Corrin, across the ocean,” Anankos pointed off into the distance and his son followed the direction with his eyes, squinting and trying to make out far off land. “There lies another land, a land known as Archanea. Archanea has many countries like Plegia, Ylisse and Regna Ferox. But thousands of years ago, the countries were all different and the land was dominated by empire built by dragons.”

“There was an empire of dragons?” Corrin asked, still looking towards the horizon.

“Oh yes. In those days we hardly took on human forms at all. We would soar through the skies and stomp over the land as giant beasts.” Anankos went on.

“But then what happened? Why do we have to stay in human forms now?” 

“Well Corrin, bad things started happening to us. We found that it became more and more difficult to have children, many eggs lay still and unhatched. Worse than that, dragons started to become sick. The power of our forms was too much for us to handle, and many started to go mad, becoming raging beasts that lost all thought and were driven only by a desire for destruction.” His voice grew softer and sadder as he thought back on all those he’d seen degenerate.

“Father… I don’t know if I like this story.” Corrin cautiously interjected. “It’s… scary.” Anankos wrapped an arm around his son and pulled him close to his side.

“I’m sorry Corrin, but some scary stories need to be told.” He apologized whilst stroking Corrin’s hair soothingly. “Are you ready to keep going?” He asked after a minute, and Corrin mutely nodded.

“It was the divine dragons who first came up with a way to solve this. The great Dragon King Naga declared that we dragons would seal away most of our power into stones. We would become like humans, and temper the rage in our spirits.” Anankos withdrew his own shining blue dragonstone from the depths of his cloak. Corrin mirrored the action by taking his out of a pack tied around his waist, cradling the stone, the size of which dwarfed his hands. 

“With these dragonstones we became manaketes, the dragonkin. But there were some who refused this solution.”

“But why!” Corrin cried, clutching his dragonstone tightly. “If they’d go mad without a stone, why wouldn’t they use one?”

“For many it was pride, most of the earth dragons refused this plan because they did not wish to give up their powerful dragon forms. They thought it’d make them weak, and easy prey for humans. There were of course some from every other tribe, flame, mage, ice, divine, air, and ocean, who disagreed with this plan as well. Naga argued the folly of this, but they wouldn’t listen, and in time many lost themselves.” Anankos paused for a moment, to let the meaning sink in. “These dragons who went mad began to rampage through the land, attacking humans.” He lamented. 

“That’s terrible!” Corrin exclaimed

“It was.” Anankos agreed. “Naga called a council of all the manaketes in the world, thousands upon thousands gathered at Mount Prism, the seat of her divine power. She told us all of what was going on and asked all dragonkin to stand beside her to defend humanity. ‘We will fight with you, our flames will burn away the degenerated and give them peace’ The fire dragons told her. ‘We will fight with you, our spells will ward away and weaken the earth dragons.’ The mage dragons told her. ‘We will fight with you, with our powerful wings we will ferry humans to safety.’ The air dragons told her. ‘We will fight with you, our blizzards will freeze the mad ones and block their paths.’ The ice dragons told her. Then everyone turned to us ocean dragons, expecting our support.”

“Let me guess, the Ocean Dragon Chief said, ‘Our big waves will wash away all the mean dragons!’” Corrin put on a purposefully deep voice as he tried to imitate the ancient dragon.

“No Corrin, I am sorry, but that is not what happened. The Ocean Dragon Chief, Hydra, said ‘We will not fight. We of the seas do not slay our kin, and humans have shown us no great kindness that deserves repayment. We became manaketes to avoid madness and bloodshed, not to embrace it.’ After that he led us all away from the mountain, leaving the meeting. In the years to come, after the earth dragons were defeated and sealed away, the other tribes began to mock us Ocean Dragons. We would not speak up for humans, so they called us the Silent Dragons. With time, that became the new name of our tribe, as we were called by no others.” Anankos finished his story, gazing far out at the sea. 

“But father, why didn’t you help the humans? Mother’s a human, and you love her! Lilith’s mother was a human too.” Corrin objected.

“I was very young then Corrin, I was only a few hundred years old, and I couldn’t challenge the decision of the chief.” Anankos sighed deeply, reflecting on how afraid they all were back then, of humans, of madness, of everything. 

“I was a different person then too, I hadn’t met any humans, I didn’t know of all the kindness and goodness they held.” Anankos explained. “But I do now though, I’ve met many wonderful humans and had two beautiful children with two of the kindest and sweetest of them all.” Anankos ruffled Corrin’s hair, causing his son to giggle.

“Father, why did you tell me this?” Corrin looked up at his father with big curious eyes.

“Because it is important to understand the past, to know how to act in the future. Especially for dragons like us.” He answered, giving his son a smile, but his son seemed concerned.

“So our dragonstones, they’ll stop us from going crazy, and becoming evil.” Corrin was staring down at the stone still held in his tiny hands. Its watery depths were surging violently, hinting at the worry plaguing its owner.

Anankos desperately wanted to say yes, but he knew that lying to his son would only hurt him. Some scary stories did need to be told after all.

“Normally they do. But eventually, the madness may come for all dragons. Fighting and fear especially brings forth primal emotions and makes degeneration more likely.”

“There’s… nothing we can do to stop it?” Corrin tremulously asked, close to crying. Anankos shifted him so he could sit on his lap, and gently wrapped his arms around his distraught child. 

“There are ways to help.” He consoled his son, squeezing him tightly. “One is especially important to us Silent Dragons, an old song. One that when sung channeling the power of a dragonstone, can help to stave off madness.”

“Can you teach me it Father?” Corrin requested 

“Of course I can son, I was the one who wrote it.” He smirked as Corrin’s face lit up in amazement. 

“Wow!”

Anankos smiled, took a breath and gazed out at the faraway sea, before beginning to gently sing.

_“You are the ocean’s grey waves, destined to seek_  
Life beyond the shore just out of reach.  
Yet the waters ever change, flowing like time  
The path is yours to climb.” 

Anankos’ soft tenor drifted through the mountain air and his dragonstone shone as he sung, bringing a sense of peace and calm to the area. Anankos looked back to Corrin, ready to help him learn the words. However his son was fast asleep, curled up in his lap.

“Seems the song worked a little too well on you then?” He chuckled, lifting his son into his arms. “I guess we’ll have to learn it another day.” Lilith was always able to sing it for Anankos when he needed it, which had become increasingly frequent in the past few years. Still, this was something Corrin didn’t need to know yet.

_He’s barely started in life, and there are some scary stories that don’t need to be told just yet._


End file.
